Indictment of Cleveland firefighters is well justified: editorial

View full sizeCleveland firefighters do a job thats often demanding and dangerous.Plain Dealer file

Firefighters swapping shifts is far from unusual. In fact, it's covered by the contract between the city of Cleveland and the Association of Cleveland Fire Fighters, Local 93.

But that same contract requires that time worked for a fellow firefighter has to be paid back -- in time, not money -- within a year, and Ohio law prohibits public employees from paying others to do their work.

Some will say that the very unusual step of indicting firefighters is overkill, and that some combination of restitution and administrative punishment ought to suffice.

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In some cases, that might be true. In these cases, it is not.

The ways in which those indicted worked a poorly conceived and poorly overseen scheduling and payroll system to their own advantage and to the taxpayers' detriment are simply stunning in the depth of their cynicism.

Failing to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law would be an insult to their brother and sister firefighters who abided by the terms of their contract, worked their shifts, served the public faithfully and resisted the invitation to game an easily abused system.

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